Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2019 May 24;19(1):634.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6996-6.

Epidemiology of needlestick and sharp injuries among health care workers based on records from 252 hospitals for the period 2010-2014, Poland

Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Epidemiology of needlestick and sharp injuries among health care workers based on records from 252 hospitals for the period 2010-2014, Poland

Anna Garus-Pakowska et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Needlestick and sharp injuries (NSIs) are an important element of public health and should be closely monitored. On the other hand there are no precise Polish data on a number of the occupational NSIs. The aim of the study was to assess the failure to report injuries and then to estimate the actual number of NSIs among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Poland based on the collected data.

Methods: Analysis of injury registers on the basis of 252 hospitals in Poland. Conducting 487 surveys among doctors, nurses and paramedics. Calculation of rates of injuries per 1000 workers per year (with 95% confidence intervals (CI)). The level of statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05.

Results: In the study period, 9775 NSIs were registered in the hospitals. Majority of the NSIs were recorded among nurses (72.6%,p < 0.01). The needle was the tool responsible for the greatest number of the NSIs in all professional groups (79.5%, p < 0.01). The average annual NSIs rates based on hospital registers were: 16.0/1000 doctors, 20.5/1000 nurses, 16.8/1000 paramedics. Every second NSIs was not reported (45.2%). We estimated that there are probably 13,567 NSIs every year among hospital care workers in Poland.

Conclusions: NSIs are a significant health problem for HCWs and should be subject to epidemiological surveillance. The purpose of the training of medical personnel should be to increase the number of injuries reported. The implementation of the epidemiological surveillance system will allow for the unification of the obtained data, which would be more comparable on the national scale as well as between different countries.

Keywords: Healthcare workers; Hospitals; Needlestick injury; Occupational exposures; Sharp injury; Surveillance; Underreporting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Thacker SB, Qualters JR, Lee LM. Public health surveillance in the United States: evolution and challenges. Suppl MMWR. 2012;61:3–9. - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Workbook for designing, implementing and evaluating a sharp injury prevention program. Atlanta: the Centers, 2008. Available online: www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/pdf/sharpsworkbook_2008.pdf.
    1. Prüss-Üstün A, Rapiti E, Hutin Y. Estimation of the global burden of disease attributable to contaminated sharps injuries among health-care workers. Am J Ind Med. 2005;48:482–490. doi: 10.1002/ajim.20230. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beltrami EM, Williams IT, Shapiro CN, Chamberland M. Risk and management of blood-borne infections in health care workers. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2000;13:385–407. doi: 10.1128/CMR.13.3.385. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tarantola A, Abiteboul D, Rachline A. Infection risks following accidental exposure to blood or body fluids in health care workers: a review of pathogens transmitted in published cases. Am J Infect Control. 2006;34:367–375. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2004.11.011. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types